


Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [29]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Families of Choice, M/M, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 18:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21432685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: Being a cop can make family very awkward.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Theo Nelson
Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1202407
Comments: 20
Kudos: 40





	Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making

**Author's Note:**

> All hail the mighty beta, LachesisMeg. All hail.
> 
> This is the busiest quarter of my whole Master's program, so the writing for fun has slowed a bit. Hopefully I'll finish some things after winter break.

Brett had an invitation to a party he didn’t want to go to.

“Hush,” his mother said with her usual authority, even though Brett hadn’t said anything yet. He definitely spent too much time with his mother. She said, “They’re family, and we’re going.”

Brett supposed he could feasibly come up with some assignment to work on, but everyone would know that he had come up with something intentionally, and his mother still had to get out to Long Island, and he always took her. And it was Aunt Anna and Uncle Eddie’s going away party, to send them off as they decamped to Florida for the winter. It just wasn’t at the shop at Jeanie and Tim’s insistence, since they would be missing the usual Thanksgiving day meal; the last time Brett had been on their property, it was with a search warrant. 

It was Foggy, of all people, who made him feel better about it, as they discussed arranging rides. “It will make Theo happy.”

“Why does he care?”

“He hasn’t said anything, but I know he’s nervous, too. Even though he’s seen them and spoken to them since. He just wants everyone to be a family again. And that includes you.” 

Brett knew it included him, but it felt good to hear Foggy say it. Not that he would ever admit it. “I gotta take my mom anyway.” Technically he didn’t need to - she could go with the Nelsons - but he always did. It would be an awkwardtime to break with custom. 

“If you need an out from a conversation, I’m sure Matt and Marci will be happy to help. And you know how Matt’s hearing is.”

“Does the family know about him and - “

“No, and they cannot find out,” Foggy said. “Because it will just be so weird. And I think Theo should have privacy about  _ one _ part of his life.”

Theo had always been intensely private about his romantic life, for one reason or another, so that wasn’t a surprise. And it would be super weird. “I can handle another Murdock-related secret.”

“I wouldn’t possibly know what you’re talking about, Detective.”

At the end of his shift, Brett decided to get Theo’s read on the situation. Since the robbery, he’d been trying not to hover because he knew everyone else was doing it, especially while Theo’s parents were still in town, so it was nice to have an excuse to come by. The shop was closed, so he went straight to Theo’s apartment, knocking on the door and announcing, “It’s Brett!” Just once, he’d shouted “Police!” and Theo had been so thoroughly freaked out that he dumped his weed in the toilet and Brett had to buy him a bottle of scotch by way of apology.

“Coming!” was the shout on the other end, and Theo unlocked the door and held it open. He did not reek of pot like he had so often in the past, which made him a little less nervous-looking. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Brett said. “Just got off work. Mind if I come in?” He kept his tone very casual.

“Sure.” Theo never said no to him, even if it was in his best interests. “You want a beer?”

“Yeah, I could use one,” Brett said, and followed him in. “Long day.”

Theo would never ask him about police business, other thank to joke about it. He got two beers out of the fridge, some microbrew that was new to Brett. “Yeah, as much as it’ll be good to have my folks out of my hair, it is nice to take off early.”

Judging from the setup of the his gaming console with the controller sitting on the chair at the end of his bed, he wasn’t up to a whole lot.

“Where’s Matt?” Brett said as he took his own seat. 

“With Foggy and Karen at Josie’s, probably. I know they like to drink there, but I can’t figure out why. Health inspector should have shut that place down years ago.”

“It might help that a legal team has her back so they can drink free,” Brett said. He wasn’t entirely sure of Matt and Theo’s relationship status, other than that it seemed to be stable, but that they hadn’t officially moved in together and weren’t the type of couple to do everything together all the time. With Matt’s schedule, that made a lot of sense. As long as Theo was happy, Brett wasn’t going to pry - at least not directly. “You’ve gotten good at hiding your drugs.”

“Why, you want some?” Theo said. “I cut back a little. For my lungs. And all of that news about people getting injured or sick from faulty vaporizers. Which would be a regulated industry if it were  _ legal _ .”

“Yeah, yeah, write your Congressman about it.”

“Plus edibles, they can get you way too high. I never thought I’d say that, but here we are.” He gestured to his controller. “You want to play?”

Brett looked at the screen, and recognized Super Smash Brothers. “You’re just going to beat me.”

“It’s all about button mashing. Even Matt has won a couple times.”

Brett accepted the controller, and Theo grabbed his spare from the shelf. 

“I wouldn’t ask this directly, but - “

“He can’t see the screen,” Theo said. “It’s just a flat surface to him. I had to tell him what directional buttons to use. Not that it matters too much in Smash Brothers, with everyone bouncing around.”

Brett wasn’t a guy who grew up on video games, except the ones at the Nelson house, and they never had the latest system or a large selection, but yes, Smash Brothers was pretty easy when you accepted that you didn’t know what was going on because the characters moved too fast and Brett kept running straight off the wing of a plane. He had logged enough hours fighting over who would be Mario in the original Mario Kart with Foggy, when the Nelsons went out on Saturday nights and Theo babysat both of them. Looking back, Brett realized the monumental amount of patience Theo must have cultivated to deal with them. 

After they goofed off for a few minutes, drinking and taking shots at their poor performances, Sadie came out from under the bed and leapt up into Theo’s lap. “Hey! I’m playing here!” Theo said, but made no move to disrupt her. 

Brett didn’t understand why people said Sadie was mean. She was perfectly reasonable as long as you respected her space. He’d always gotten along with her. Sure, she’d occasionally glare at him when he came too close, but not every cat had to love human attention, especially from strangers. 

“She’s been really clingy since I got out of the hospital,” Theo said, as if he had to explain Sadie’s rare appearance in front of a guest. 

“I assume that picture of her and Luke Cage in matching hoodies is not a photoshop.” It was on Theo’s Facebook page.

“It was his idea. She was pretty pissed at me leaving her, though.”

“She doesn’t know how good she has it. I’ve been to that club. Not during regular hours, of course. I’m not cool enough for that.”

“What, and you think I’m cool enough to hang out in the VIP lounge and pass out on Luke’s couch? Wearing a suit that didn’t even have a matching tie? Because I definitely did that. I drank all of his rum and I’m pretty sure I hit on some mobster who tried to kill Luke, but like, a lot of people have tried to kill Luke. I can’t hold that against everyone.”

Brett burst out laughing because he knew every bit of it was true.

“I could get you in. Foggy could definitely get you in. He loves the cognac there. You’ve got connections.”

Brett shook his head. “It’s not my kind of place. Foggy likes to strut a little, and you like - to be yourself. I’m just not a Harlem’s Paradise kinda guy.”

“You’re cooler than you think you are. And you have the suits for it.”

“Those are work suits.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He added, after a moment, “I can see how it would be a little intimidating.”

“And I’m a cop,” Brett said. Not that it was forbidden to him or anything. There were just layers to it that there weren’t for Foggy and Theo. “So how are you getting to Long Island on Sunday?”

“Foggy’s getting paid in rides from a client, so we have a car. Karen’s going to visit her family up wherever her family is from. New Hampshire? No, wait, I think it’s Vermont. Where’s the ice cream from?”

“Vermont.”

“That’s the state she’s from. She doesn’t like to talk about it.”

Brett knew even less about Karen than Theo did, but that wasn’t the point. “Have you been out there recently?”

“Since?” Theo asked. “No, I just saw everybody when Grandad visited, and that was here. But I know they’ve really been bugging me to come, see my goddaughter. And I think Andy still feels really bad about everything, even though I said he doesn’t have to be.”

Brett was pretty sure he knew who the call on the tip line came from, but that was a guess, and it wasn’t something he was about to discuss. But it would explain Andy’s behavior. “I haven’t spoken to them.”

“Do you usually? They don’t live nearby. Before Mary was born, I had been drifting apart from Andy and Jo for years,” Theo pointed out. “This is our big family event of the fall because we haven’t had one and we won’t have one until Thanksgiving. And honestly, I might be in Florida for that. I don’t want Mom and Dad eating Chinese because he couldn’t carve a turkey up in his condo, and he refuses to get anything pre-sliced. It dries it out.” Theo looked at Brett. “Is this because of the investigation? It’s not like you arrested Duncan.”

“I didn’t arrest him because I specifically asked another officer to arrest him,” Brett repiled. “I interviewed Duncan in the hospital. And that was after I went to his parents’ house to check up on his alibi and before the search warrant. At the same house.”

“You were doing your job. And - it wasn’t like Duncan wasn’t guilty. They know that.” But he didn’t sound so steady when he said it, even if he believed it, or told himself he believed it. “Besides, it doesn’t fucking matter. You’re family as much as they are, so if they’re throwing a family party, you get to be there.” He said it not out of anger but a need for reassurance - maybe for both of them.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, Brett. They should want you back. They know it’s the right thing to do.”

  
  


Theo had such faith in his relatives, specifically Andy and Jo, that it steeled Brett’s courage. He went with his mom to church on Sunday and drove her out to Long Island, where the Nelson family never waited on a long (and as his mother would put it, proper) Sunday service and the party was in full-swing, with a BBQ going and plenty of people to argue about the cooking of meats, including both of the senior Nelson brothers.

“Welcome back!” Jeanie Nelson said as she came out to the driveway to greet them. She immediately insisted on taking Brett’s mom’s pecan pies off her hands. Mom made all of her pies without dairy or eggs now if she could possibly avoid it, out of habit for Theo, whom she always insisted should eat more. Between her and his own mom, there were two people on whom Theo could really rely on for good food at a potluck event. 

Jeanie made a point of pulling Brett into a hug. “It’s nice to see you.”

“Someday my mom might have to learn to get around without me, but not today.”

“Hush!” his own mom said. “Do I smell fried catfish?”

“One of my in-laws thought it would be a novelty,” Aunt Jeanie said. “We’ll see how it actually turns out. Don’t hold your breath.”

They walked through the house and were greeted in the backyard with cheers from a mildly intoxicated crowd. Brett’s mom took her customary good chair next to Aunt Anna, and Brett found Theo and Andy in folding chairs not far from the main action of the dueling grills, keeping an eye on their parents. Theo had his goddaughter in his lap. She could sit up on her own and she had a full head of light blond hair, and she was waving a tiny knit doll that looked suspiciously like the red-costumed Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. She held it up as Brett approached. “Bah!”

“That’s Brett, honey,” Andy said, looking a little relaxed, maybe because he had an empty in his chair’s cup holder. “Can you say ‘ _ Brett?’ _ ”

“Bet!”

“That’s pretty good.” Brett held out his hand, and when she didn’t know to shake, he just gave her a fist pump against her new doll. “Got it on the first try!”

“Oh man, she’s nowhere near my name,” Theo said, beaming anyway. He  _ loved _ having some quasi-parental connection to a child. “It’s harder. The ‘th’ sound is much harder.”

“I’m still ‘Baba’ and so is Jo, so we’re working on it,” Andy said. He looked proud, too. “Can I get you something, Officer?”

“It’s definitely not officer today, so yes, you can. I’ve spent the last four hours with my mother so I’d really appreciate it.”

There was a whole selection near the coolers - nothing too top-shelf, but Brett chose a mid-level quality beer for himself and passed on the triple sec. He mingled, finding Foggy and Matt in their own corner, being hit up on the latest gossip about all of the vigilantes they claimed they didn’t know or hang out with, and enduring painful amounts of lawyer jokes with their usual good nature. Then one of the more distant Nelson cousins had a kid who decided he wanted to be a cop, at least for the time being, and hit Brett up with all kinds of questions, most of them involving what it was like to have a gun and if he had to shoot people and if he had to rescue people from burning building (no, that was firefighters). Their biker cousin, the one in Dogs of Hell, was also present (out of biker garb) but Brett had always gotten along fine with him, mostly because he wasn’t an active member of the Hell’s Kitchen chapter - and because Brett had been the one to physically arrest the Punisher.

Jo finally flagged Brett down in some amount of privacy in the kitchen when he came in to clean his glass, not wanting to add to the growing pile in the sink. 

“We’re so glad you came,” she said. She hadn’t been there when he interviewed Duncan in the hospital, but surely she knew all about it. Brett also heard it through the grapevine that she’d kicked Duncan out of her house when he was out on bail. She always looked a little disheveled, as a mother of four often did. “I know it’s awkward. No one’s said anything, but Andy did take his parents to visit Duncan in the new facility. He says he’s doing okay, but it’s hard to tell what that means. He’s going through a lot.”

“There’s no perfect way to do these things,” he said. “But if Theo says no hard feelings, then there’s no hard feelings.”

“Theo  _ wants _ there to be no hard feelings, but that’s different from what people are capable of. But it’s nice that he always expects the best of us. He has so much faith.” She smiled. “But we have no hard feelings about you. And whatever you know about Frank Castle.”

“Nothing, at the moment,” Brett said. He’d worked hard to make sure that stayed true. “He didn’t tell me anything because I would have tried to stop him.”

“You’ve always done what you think is right. Which is more than I can say for everyone else,” she said. “It is really good to have you here. Are you coming to Thanksgiving? We’d really like to do it at the shop, but I think Theo will try to wiggle out of it.”

“Either way, I’ll be there. With my mom.”

“I’m not going to be the one to tell you to get your own place, Brett.”

“Kinda feel like you just did,” he said, and they hugged. Things were going to be okay.

  
  
  


Epilogue

Theo didn’t see Karen again until she came to pick up sandwiches for dinner. Matt and Foggy were really going at it at the office for her to be running this errand, as it was usually one of them instead. “Hey,” she said.

The place was empty, with Deon in the back finishing up prep for tomorrow. Theo looked around to check and said, “Hey.” He put their order on the counter between them. “Here you go.” She tried to pay - the firm was experiencing a weird period of financial stability - but he refused with a gesture. “Look, it’s none of my business, so you don’t have to answer in detail, but how was Vermont?”

“Okay. My dad was ... still the person he’s always been.” She let out a long sigh when she said it. She looked tired, but Karen always looked sort of tired. Life had not been good to her, but it was never something Theo would ask about. 

“Sometimes people change. But sometimes they don’t,” he said. “We don’t really control other people.”

Karen nodded. “Frank was a help. He said he wouldn’t be confrontational, and he wasn’t. But it was good to have him there. And I’m glad I went.”

“Family is hard, but they’re still family,” Theo said. “You know you have family here, right? You were invited to the party you missed. And you’re invited to everything else.”

She looked a little surprised. “Your parents said that?”

“I say that,” he said without hesitating, then was surprised at himself for saying it. But his name was on the store’s lease now. He was the Nelson of Nelson’s Fine Meats. That had to mean something. 

Karen smiled. She didn’t smile that often. “Thanks. That - means a lot.”

“Don’t be too impressed with me. You’re the only one of us in Hell’s Kitchen that owns a car.”

She laughed, and Theo could see why Foggy liked her so much. He wondered if being with Frank made her happy - she definitely needed someone in her life to make her happy. Theo knew what that was like. 

“You know, I’m thinking of going to Tampa for Thanksgiving,” Karen said. “Frank has an army friend down there so he’s familiar with the area. So if you go ... we’re in town.”

Theo could not think of a weirder way to spend Thanksgiving, but he said, “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“We know you’ll want to do your thing with your parents, but if you need a breather - “

“Is there crime to fight in Tampa?”

“That’s not all he does,” Karen answered quickly. “Come visit. We’ll take you for a round of minigolf.”

“... Sure.”

Great. Another thing to talk Matt into.

  
The End


End file.
